Georgia wins Women's World Team Chess Championship 2015. Georgia concluded the event in style, by defeating the host country and three-times world champions China. The decisive game of the match was Meri Arabidze's fine victory on the second board. From the early opening stage the Georgian put a strong pressure on her opponent Shen Yang, won a pawn and went on to convert into full point. The remaining three games were drawn. Georgia took the gold medal with 17 match points, conceding only one tie to Russia. Bela Khotenashvili was by far the best top board, scoring 7,5/9 points for a 2699-elo performance. Meri Arabidze was the best 3rd board with 6/7. China is third with 11 match points, claiming the bronze. Still holding a hope for the gold medal in case of Georgia's failure in the final round, Russia put up a powerful performance against USA, convincingly winning the match 3,5-0,5. Katerina Nemcova was the only to hold a draw, against the world championship finalist Natalija Pogonina. Olga Girya, playing as the 5th board, was the top performer of the event with 6,5/7 points or 92,9%. Russia won the silver medal, with equal sum of individual points as Georgia, 25 each, but only 15 match points, having conceded ties to Kazakhstan and Armenia. Ukraine won 3,5-0,5 against Egypt, but Shrook Wafa, earning on the experience of participating in recent Women's World Championship in Sochi, played an inspired game against Inna Gaponenko and nearly defeated the much higher rated opponent. Gaponenko managed to salvage a draw. Armenia started the match against India without its top player Elina Danielian. Nevertheless, her replacement Lilit Mkrtchian won a fine game against the top rated player in the championship Humpy Koneru. However, India showed strength on the lower boards and emerged victorious 3-1. Poland and Kazakhstan exchanged blows to finish their match in a 2-2 tie. The top two boards were drawn. Kazakhstan assumed the lead after Gulmira Dauletova won against the World University Champion Klaudia Kulon. Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska leveled the score by defeating Guliskhan Nakhbayeva.

By winning in round 7 against India, Georgia increased its lead at the World Women Team Championship to 2 points. The main rival of Georgia, the Russian team, luckily avoided dramatic result in the match against Kazakhstan and finished the match with 2:2 score. Another critical match Ukraine-China was also tied and China kept the third place at the table. The USA and Armenian teams held each other to a draw with even scores on all boards. Poland outplayed Egypt with 3:1 score. Once again Wafa Shrook was the only Egyptian player, who brought a point to the team.

The director of Chengdu sports bureau, Ms.Tan Xuejun and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov made the first symbolic move 1.d4 in the game Gunina-Abdumalik to start the most dramatic match at the 7th round.

Round 6

The director of Chengdu Chess Center and Chengdu Chess Institute, Jiang Quansheng, together with the President of the Russian Chess Federation, Andrey Filatov, made the first symbolic moves in the game Socko-Gunina at the start of the 6th round of World Women Team Championship.Andrey Filatov, who arrived to Chengdu to take part in the FIDE Presidential board meeting, brought also luck to the Russian team, who won the match against Poland with 3,5:0,5 score. Georgia convincingly outplayed USA and leads with 11 points, one point above Russia. China drew with Kazakhstan and placed third with 8 points. Ukraine defeated Armenia with a narrow score and climbed up on the fourth place. India won against Egypt and placed fifth.

Women's World Team Championship 2015 Volunteers welcome FIDE President

Round 5

In the central match of the round five Georgian top player Bela Khotenashvili defeated Anna Muzychuk, and with the other three games being drawn, Georgia signed an important victory against Ukraine. Georgia keeps the lead with 9 points, Russia is one point behind after victory over Egypt with 4:0 score. China won a very important match against Poland with 3:1 score to climb on the third place in the table. India was stronger in the match against USA and the only drawish result was in the match Armenia-Kazakhstan.

Round 4

In the fourth round of the World Women’s Team Championship the leader of the tournament Georgia kept its position at the top by winning the match against Kazakhstan with 3:1 score. After numerous ups and downs Russia outplayed India with 2,5:1,5 score and placed second in the table. USA lost its first match in the tournament against Ukraine with 3:1, while Armenia won with the narrow score against Poland. China crushed Egypt with 4:0 and shares 3rd place with Ukraine and Armenia.

Round 3

In the round 3 of the Women’s World Team Championship Nino Batsiashvili brought the victory to Georgian team in the match against Poland. Thus, Georgia became the sole leader in the tournament with 5 team points. In another central match of the round the Russian team, led by former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, celebrated its first victory after defeating China with 3:1 score. After 3 rounds Russia shares the second place together with the team from USA, which held the higher rated team from Kazakhstan to a draw. Ukraine was in danger to lose the match against India but Natalia Zhukova equalized the score by winning the critical final game. Armenia outplayed Egypt with 3:1 score. The match between Poland and Georgia started with the peaceful draw Bartel-Melia but before the first time control the situation on left boards was changing rapidly.

The second round of the World Women’s Team Championship started with a short delay. Natalia Pogonina didn’t like the lighting over her board and the game Pogonina-Mkrtchian was moved to another room next to the main playing hall. After unfortunate start Ukrainian team, led by World Champion Maria Muzychuk, defeated Kazakhstan with 3, 5 : 0,5 score. Georgia crushed the Egyptian team with 4:0. Other three matches China-India, USA-Poland, Russia-Armenia finished in a draw after long fight. Valentina Gunina, the top board of Russian team, suffers the second loss in a row, this time against Elina Danielian. The game became decisive for the outcome of the match Russia-Armenia. After two rounds Georgia, Poland, China and USA shares the lead with 3 team points.

The World Women Team Championship began today at the Wang Jiang Hotel in Chengdu and the first round was already plenty of chess drama. Victory of Poland over defending champion Ukraine with 3,5:0,5 score became a big sensation. The encounter between Jolanta Zawadska and Anna Ushenina finished dramatically as Anna Ushenina lost her game on time. Another unexpected result came in the match India-Kazakhstan. The favorites of the pair led by Humpy Koneru were defeated by young team from Kazakhstan with 2,5:1,5 score. The key match between Russia and Georgia finished in a draw but not before Russian players missed a good chance to defeat their opponents. Egyptian WGM Wafa Shrook outplayed the much higher rated WGM Sabina-Francesca Foisor but nevertheless Egypt lost to the USA with 3:1 score. Chinese fans can be happy with the start of the championship as their favorite team won the first match against Armenia with 3:1 score.

Another unfortunate accident happened to Ukrainian player Anna Ushenina – she didn’t press her clock correctly and lost on time.

The Chief Arbiter of the Championship Takis Nikolopoulos clarified the situation: “Anna Ushenina explained that she had pressed her clock but the flag fell. The clock was checked in front of both players and the captain of Ukrainian team and it was found it was working properly. According to the article 6.10 A every indication given by the clocks is considered to be conclusive in the absence of any evident defect. So the result remained the same and Ushenina lost the game. Most probably Anna didn’t press the clock correctly because she was in the time trouble. There was no appeal after the end of the game”. Anna’s unfortunate loss was the beginning of further troubles for the Ukrainian team as Anna Muzychuk and Inna Gaponenko were defeated by Monika Socko and Marta Bartel respectively.

USA came close to 4:0 score against Egypt, but Sabina-Francesca Foisor started to make mistakes in a winning position and suddenly lost to Wafa Shrook.

Harika Dronavalli made a good start for India by winning relatively easily against Danara Saduakassova. However, the positions of Indian players on the last boards looked suspicious. In order to equalize the score the top player Humpy Koneru had to win against young but already well-known player from Kazakhstan Zhansaya Abdumalik but failed to find the right way to victory in the pawn endgame. The match finished 2,5:1,5 in favor of Kazakhstan.

The bottom two boards for the Chinese team signed two victories, while Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi drew the games against top seeds of Armenian team. As a result China outplayed the Armenian team with a 3,5-0,5 score.

In the last match of the evening, the Georgian team held the Russian team to a draw. Valentina Gunina was defeated by Bela Khotenashvili on the first board and Alexandra Goriachkina could only even up the score with a victory against Nino Batsiashvili. After Pogonina drew with Meri Arabidze everything was decided in the final game of the match. After stubborn defence Lela Javakishvili saved queen’s ending against Alexandra Kosteniuk.

The opening ceremony of the Women's World Team Chess Championship 2015 took place in the hall of the Wang Jiang Hotel on the 18th of April.

The ceremony was attended by Vice Mayor of Chengdu Government, Mr. Fu.Yonglin, the director of Chengdu sports bureau, Ms.Tan Xuejun, Deputy Director of Chengdu Sports Bureau, Mr. Gao Wei, General secretary of CCA, Mr. Ye Jiangchuan, FIDE Vice President and Chairman of Appeals Committee, D.V. Sundar, President of Georgian Chess Federation and member of Appeals Commitee, Giya Giorgadze, players, captains and other guests.

At the start of the ceremony Vice Mayor of Chengdu Government, Mr. Fu.Yonglin welcomed all players and team leaders in Chengdu: “On behalf of Chengdu Municipal Government and 14 million hospitable local citizens, I would like to extend my warm welcome to all the players and team leaders and my sincere gratitude to FIDE and Board and Card Games Administrative Center of General Administration of Sport in China for their great support! I sincerely hope that this event can construct a platform for Chengdu to further exchange communication and cooperation with the world, and improve chess skills all around the world.”

FIDE Vice-President D.V. Sundar expresses his gratitude to the organizers for hosting the WWTCC and FIDE Presidential Board Meeting in Chengdu and wished good luck to all players.

IM Shen Yang delivered her speech on behalf of the Women's National Team of China.

The Chief Arbiter of the tournament Panagiotis Nikolopoulos conducted the ceremony of drawing of lots. The top players from each team were invited to the stage and proposed to choose a toy of panda, one of the most recognized animals from China, regarded as a symbol for friendship and peace.

Zhansaya Abdumalik from Kazakhstan chose the number 1 for her team.

The first round will be played on Sunday, April 19th at 15:00 local time. The pairings of the first round are: